The Mail Bag
The Yak
Comments (5)
"Feed the Yak and he will score."
That's the chant that has winged its way up from Portsmouth via Middlesborough. With a scoring record just shy of one in two, we know he can certainly score goals.
So why is he so bad for Everton?
Look back to the chant. Feed him. The balls we are playing to him are mostly for him to hold the ball up and bring others into play. Generally, this is with his back to goal.
Something we've been far too guilty of in the past few games is just hoofing the ball upfield. It doesn't matter how good the attacker is, if he is not that type of player, it simply won't work - just look at how the shite are slowly ruining Torres.
Yak is clearly not happy with having to play like this. Yes, he's strong and can hold defenders off, so in theory he should be able to perform that role and in theory should be able to provide a target man foil for a player like Johnson. I might be wrong but I've rarely seen him deployed as such as he simply isn't that type of player.
He is a goalscorer, not a forward. The chant is as it is for a reason. If you give Yakubu a chance, he'll more often than not bury it. You only have to see with how he finished against Wednesday for proof. That is the type of goal Yakubu will score for fun, and those are the type of balls we have to play to him; along the ground for him to run on to or at the very least with him able to have a clear strike at goal. With Arteta back, we should be seeing more of that.
Yak is looking unfit at the moment, and my 'Boro mates say he didn't have a pre-season to speak of. They also speak of him as being lightning fast when he wants to be, which, by the way he lugs around the pitch seems to suggest he's simply not fit to play. But the only way to get sharpness back is being on the pitch.
Even when he's fit, he may lug about, but if he lugs about, pops up in the area and slams the ball in the back of the net, I doubt many will be complaining.
So, to summarise, give the Yak matches, give him service, and he will score. Players don't become crap overnight.
Keep the faith.
Mike Dillon, Posted 05/10/2007 at 14:51:58
Comments
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2 Posted 06/10/2007 at 01:51:32
3 Posted 06/10/2007 at 02:10:31
They’re diffrent players, as I’ve said. Yet Yak can play outside the box aswell but only if he’s provided to. He can turn outside of the box and take players on or turn defenders on the edge of the box - as can most strikers. But when he’s expected to do more running than our center mids what do you expect?!
I like direct fotball, but direct doesn;t mean hit and hope and far too many of our defenders (even when playing in midfield!!) lack composure to play i a team mate. Look at most World class defensice players and they win the ball and play a simple pass. Ruud Gullitt didn;t like playing as a striker because as a striker your time on the ball i minimal, you;re not involved in moves but expected to provide the end product. They are naturally selfish players, and in the same way that McFadden would have been critised heavily if he’d not scored because he could have played in the Yak - he didn’t, he had a go and it came good.
Gullit as many of you’ll remember went to a sweeper role as player manager at Chelsea (pre-ski), because he could dictate play... launch the Beckham/Gerrard 40 yard passes. We seemingly expect our defenders to do this, but rather than focussing on that look at the end product. I genuinely think we’ve got the best breadth of forwards we’ve had for years, but we have to use our midfield and create not play a Cryuff "no midfield" game with, in fairness, a strong backline that lack pretty much any creative vision. I f you asked Hamilton to play golf I’m sure he’d give it a go, but he’s going to look very shit against Tiger Woods and highly likely against even against a half decent semi-pro*.
* I have no idea if Lewis Hamilton can play golf at all, but hopefully you get what I mean.
4 Posted 06/10/2007 at 06:05:52
5 Posted 06/10/2007 at 08:50:10
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1 Posted 06/10/2007 at 01:47:38
Even that might be a bit generous Mike, as most of the balls for him have actually gone sailing over the bloke’s head! He can’t jump like Vic or Vaughny, so you’re spot on that we need to feed him properly. I think that means balls into feet, personally.
The positive side of his actual play so far, except for a couple of goals already, is that he’s slotted some nice passes around when actually getting the ball. So maybe he can join up play and dink nice through balls for AJ to latch onto, we just need to be a bit more clever in our approach play. With Baines, Pienaar, Arteta, and even Faddy now, we have enough players that can get it down and knock the ball around more subtley. It’s just whether the manager can get away from his natural tendency to have the ball launched forward so that it’s not in our half......surprising how quickly it comes back when we do that though, isn’t it?